equipment and maintenance costs with Bermuda as it takes over the Airport.

Management and Technology Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons made the announcement in the House of Assembly yesterday.

Dr. Gibbons said the FAA "has signed a letter of intent to establish air traffic service agreements with Bermuda and to lend us equipment which will assist in providing those air traffic services''.

"Additionally, the FAA has agreed to share in the cost of buying and maintaining other equipment to be used in the control of air traffic,'' he said.

Dr. Gibbons said he could not disclose full details until the agreements were formally confirmed by the British Government.

But talks with the FAA began because the American body was interested in having access to information collected by radar at Bermuda Airport. By extending the area through which aircraft is tracked by radar, the FAA can allow aircraft to fly closer together. That, in turn, saves airlines money because planes can fly more direct routes.

Dr. Gibbons had said the FAA was willing to share costs with Bermuda in return for the radar information, which could be electronically transmitted to the FAA in New York.

The Minister also announced that final details had been worked out and a five-year, $22-million contract had been signed with Serco Aviation Services Inc. of Canada.

Serco takes over air traffic control; crash, fire, and rescue; ground electronics; and weather forecasting on June 1. The US Navy is leaving Bermuda on September 1.

The contract, which expires on April 15, 2000, will pay Serco just over $4.4 million a year.

Part of the detailed negotiations was to allow services to be renegotiated if activity levels at the Airport changed, he said. Serco would provide Bermuda with a $800,000 performance bond.

Until it was purchased by the Serco Group this year, Serco of Canada was Thompson Hickling Aviation, the only company Transport Canada had certified to provide air traffic control services in that country.

With headquarters in Middlesex, England, Serco Group employs more than 10,000 people and has annual sales of more than $400 million. It operates airports in Luxembourg, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, Gibraltar, and Manitoba, Canada.

Serco plans to have a 90 percent Bermudian operation by June of 1998 and will soon be advertising locally for Bermudians to work at the Airport. Dr. Gibbons said.

Training will be provided, at Serco's Bailbrook College in the UK and other schools.

"Bermudians will be recruited for weather forecasting positions and undergo a one-year post-graduate course in meteorology at a facility such as the University of Montreal in Canada,'' Dr. Gibbons said. "The academic qualifications required for these positions are high, but it is anticipated that local forecasters should have replaced their offshore counterparts by the end of the fourth year of the contract.'' Ground electronic technicians will be trained in Bermuda with help from Bermuda College, he said.

Courses both local and abroad will be offered for crash, fire, and rescue training.

"The Government is confident that we are now well on the way to a safe and orderly transition from US to Bermuda control of airfield operations and air traffic services,'' he said. "We are confident, too, that we will be able to offer a standard of service which fully satisfies international standards and specifications.''